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No. 94 



Health, Education, Recreation 



MEASUREMENTS AS APPLIED 
TO SCHOOL HYGIENE 



LUTHER H. GULICK, M.D. 

DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 




Reprinted from 

American Physical Education Review, April, 191 i 

BY the 

Department of Child Hygiene of the 

Russell Sage Foundation 

400 Metropolitan Tower, New York City 



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Some of the Pamphlets that can be Furnished 

by the Department of Child Hygiene of 

the Russell Sage Foundation 

400 Metropolitan Tower, New York City 



Medical Inspection 

54. The Argument for Medical Inspection and Some Significant 

Facts. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 
61. Relation of Physical Defects to School Progress. Leonard P. 

Ayres, Ph.D. 

Retardation 

77. Why 250,000 Children Quit School. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 

Hygiene and Health 

4. Health of School Children. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
29. The Playground as a Factor in School Hygiene. George E. 

Johnson. 
48. Health, Morality and The Playground. Elmer Ellsworth Brown. 

59. Statistics on Hygiene Instruction. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 
71. Open Air Schools. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 

Recreation 

67. Popular Recreation and Public Morality. Luther H. Gulick, 

M.D. 
76. Exercise and Rest. Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 

Festivals and Celebrations 

53. May Day Celebrations. • Miss Elizabeth Burchenal. 

60. A Sane and Patriotic Fourth. Mrs. Isaac L. Rice. 

68. Celebrating Independence Day. August H. Brunner. 

70. Independence Day Celebrations. Gulick, Orr, Gardner and 
Hanmer. 

Use of School Buildings 

56. Vacation Schools. Clarence A. Perry. 

83. The Community Used Schoolhouse. Clarence A. Perry. 

85, Evening Recreation Centers. Clarence A. Perry. 



PuHliskoi- 






Measurements as Applied to School Hygiene* 

Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 



In calling to order this Fifth Annual Congress of the American 
School Hygiene Association, I wish to express to the New York 
Academy of Medicine our appreciation of their courtesy in in- 
viting us to meet, without expense, in this building, with its 
splendid record of service to the cause of medicine and to human- 
kind, and its long list of physicians who have been and are making 
common cause with all those who aim not merely at the cure and 
prevention of disease, but even more at the upbuilding of human 
vitality. We are proud that one of our officers is also one of 
theirs — Dr. Abraham Jacobi. 

I cannot let this occasion pass without drawing attention to 
what I believe to be a fundamental need, not only in school hy- 
giene but in all that proudly marches under the name of science. 
I refer to the need for definite measurements of results already 
obtained, measurements without which neither medicine nor 
education can ever become scientific. I do not need to remind 
you that it was through the use of measurements that alchemy 
became chemistry, astrology became astronomy, physics grew 
out of mystery. The great need of the school hygiene course 
today, as well as the greatest need of education itself, is not au- 
thority nor philosophy ; it is a need for definite methods of meas- 
uring the effects of present systems and practices. 

I am sure that the occasion has now so far gone by that I may 
speak, without venturing beyond the limits of personal courtesy, 
of a conversation which took place between Dr. William H. 
Maxwell and myself at the time I became Director of Physical 
Training in the New York Public Schools, — a conversation which 
he may have forgotten. I said: 

"Dr. Maxwell, let us take all of the schools in several sections 
of the city, — enough different sections so that the test will be a 

* Opening Address as President of the American School Hygiene Associa- 
tion, at the Fifth Annual Congress, February 2-4, 191 1. 



fair one, — and do away with physical training in half of these 
schools, leaving it in operation in the other half; all other con- 
ditions to be the same in both schools. Then we shall see what 
physical training really accomplishes ; we shall know whether the 
boys and girls in the schools having physical training become 
taller and stronger than the boys and girls in the schools not 
having physical training." Dr. Maxwell answered: 

"The plan is impossible. People would protest that their 
children were being experimented upon. The public demands 
absolute knowledge on the part of the instructors; experimenta- 
tion would not be tolerated. You are employed to take charge 
of the physical training because it is believed that you know your 
business, — that you have accurate information as to the effect of 
the things you are undertaking to do." 

"But," I said, "I do not know the actual results of such work 
as this; nobody knows. I believe my methods are right, but I 
want to find out definitely, by making comparative measure- 
ments." 

"No, it would never do," was Dr. Maxwell's reply. "Any 
school administrator who worked on the basis you propose would 
not only be attacked by public opinion, but would be put out of 
any position of responsibility." 

Dr. Maxwell was right. This is in general the attitude of the 
public today ; yet progress is not possible in school hygiene or in 
any other educational work if it is demanded that school men 
shall have the accurate knowledge which they have had no oppor- 
tunity to secure. 

In order to make satisfactory progress along the line of school 
hygiene, there are many questions that need definitely to be 
settled. Most of these questions are fundamental not only with 
reference to school hygiene and education, but with reference to 
human progress and intellectual activity. 

For example, what is the best age for a child to enter school? 
This is a question that could be definitely answered if we could 
secure adequate data on the subject. Galton and Karl Pearson 
have given us the tools, life itself gives us the material, for ob- 
taining such data. We need only the opportunity. I venture 
the assertion that almost every person in this room has convictions 
upon the subject and yet that these convictions are based upon a 
few personal experiences in each case. Physicians tend to put 
the best age for entering school rather high ; school men tend to 



put it low. In my own case, as a father, I was influenced by my 
study of medicine to believe that one of the perils of the age was 
forcing children to go to school too early; that school routine at 
six years of age was dangerous to a highly organized girl; and 
that it was a biological crime to force such a child to sit still when 
all her instincts commanded her to wriggle. Therefore my child 
was in school very little until she was eight years old. Even at 
that age she had already passed the best years for acquiring 
languages, either by speaking or writing. She has been "over 
age" all during her school life. I may have done her a great 
wrong. 

My point is this: that neither school men nor physicians nor 
parents are competent of judging such questions as this ex cathe- 
dra. Theories and convictions can never solve such problems; 
their only solution lies in a searching analysis of existing condi- 
tions, in measuring results in a sufficient number of cases to 
arrive at definite conclusions. Such investigations should be 
conducted in accordance with modern scientific methods. 

It is concerning the most fundamental questions, moreover, 
that we are still at sea. We do not know the number of hours a 
child should study each day in order to make the most progress 
at each age. There is no one trying to find out, so far as I know. 
We do not know how many subjects a child can study to advan- 
tage at each age. We do not even know the most effective 
and economic size for a class at various ages. It might be, for 
example, that in a class of 70 children each child would get so 
little instruction that a number of them would be held back; 
and this would cost the school system more than if there had 
been only 50 in the class. We do not know the number of 
months in the year that children should attend school ; yet we 
compel all children to go to school upon the assumption that we 
do know. 

We do not know the proper length for each period of attention 
in different subjects. That is, in arithmetic a child of ten years 
might be able to give only ten minutes' consecutive attention 
without fatigue ; whereas in history the same child might spend 
an hour to advantage. We do not know how much moisture 
there should be in the air of the schoolroom, nor the relation of 
the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere to mental 
fatigue and intellectual effort. We do not know fully the degree 
to which it is worth while to study when we are fatigued. I do 



not mean that we cannot push ourselves beyond the point of 
fatigue; but that, considering children and adults merely as 
machines, there is a point beyond which it does not pay to push, 
since we get only a diminishing return. 

I might easily spend all the time available for these introduc- 
tory remarks in enumerating the underlying problems connected 
with the education and the health of children which are as yet 
only matters of theory. We have thus far no units of measure- 
ment by which we can tell whether or not we are making progress 
in educational methods; yet the education of our children is the 
largest and in many respects the most important occupation in 
which the civilized world is engaged. There is no more fertile 
field in the whole world of scientific activity than the work of 
bringing the young human being into satisfactory adjustment 
with the life he is to lead. 

In the United States alone, we are spending about five hundred 
million dollars a year on public education ; this does not include 
the vast sums spent by the great endowments, by privately es- 
tablished institutions for higher learning, or by private schools. 
Of nearly thirty-five millions of dollars spent for education in'New 
York City last year, hardly a dollar was expended for the purpose 
of measuring the results we are getting. This was not because 
our Superintendent of Schools did not see the need for such meas- 
urements; he has seen the need, and has appealed without suc- 
cess to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for funds which 
would enable him to provide the necessary equipment for secur- 
ing these data. We see the significance of examining our coal to 
be sure that we are getting the best and the cheapest ; we do not 
see the significance of examining the output of our school system, 
to be sure that we are getting the best results from our expen- 
diture. 

Can one of you here today name an educational endowment, 
a school of pedagogy, or any other agency that is collecting and 
making available the evidence on any one of these great ques- 
tions? There are several great funds of ten, twenty-five, fifty 
millions of dollars, available for research, for giving salaries to 
retiring professors, for supporting education in the South, — 
admirable purposes, all of them, — but does there exist a 
single endowment of any amount whatever for the purpose of 
ascertaining what has been accomplished with the hundreds of 
millions already spent in education? An endowment similar to 



that of the General Education Board, which should devote its 
income, not to the support of education, but to establishing modes 
of measuring progress, and to the application of these measure- 
ments in such a way as to render effective the great mass of 
educational experience already in existence, would, it is safe to 
say, revolutionize the status of education in a single generation 
and establish it upon a scientific basis. 

Am I overstepping the facts when I say that there is scarcely a 
city in America that is satisfied with its public schools? Here 
in New York City an investigation has been proposed ; and those 
who follow educational matters know that in city after city severe 
criticisms of the school systems are constantly coming up. Even 
school men themselves disagree when they come together to dis- 
cuss these questions; you cannot get a group of educational 
people together without having a controversy upon some one of 
these problems. In fact, as individuals we cannot settle these 
matters to our own satisfaction. They can be settled only by 
ascertaining results — by measurements of what we are doing. 



020 975 924 A 



Department of Child Hygiene 
Russell Sa^e Foundation Publications 



MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 

BY LUTHER HALSEY GULICK. M.D. 

DIRECTOR OF PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOLS; AND 

LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M.. Ph.D. 

FORMERLY GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS FOR PORTO RICO 

"Lucidly exhaustive and admirably arranged." — The Nation. 

"A notable contribution both to medicine and to school administration." — 
Erie Dispatch. 

"An important contribution to the cause of Education." — Journal of Edu- 
cation. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.00 

LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS 

A Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems 
BY LEONARD P. AYRES, A.M., Ph.D. 

FORMERLY GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS FOR PORTO RICO; CO-AUTHOR 
OF MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS, AUTHOR OF OPEN AIR SCHOOLS. 

"Mr. Ayres has given life to his figures and character to his diagrams." — 
American Industries. 

"Such a book, at once readable and scholarly, scientific and popular, criti- 
cal and constructive, is typical of the best in educational literature." — The Inde- 
pendent. 

"It is the most important specific study of school conditions that has been 
made by any one." — Journal of Education. 
Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.50. In lots of six, $1.00 each, postpaid 

THE WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL 
PLANT 

BY CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY 

DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

" The book bristles with interesting information and salient quotations." — 
The Chautauquan. 

" It is full of definite ideas as to programme and schedules of expense in- 
volved." — The Psychological Clinic. 

" It is a stirring story." — Literary Digest. 

" An able delineation of one effective means of social advance." — Annals of 
American Academy of Political and Social Science. 

Price, postpaid, $1.25 

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 
105 East 22d Street, New York City, N. Y. 



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